The Girls’ Summit

What is the Girls’ Summit?

Girls’ Summit is a free, full day forum for and about girls and STEM. The event is designed to empower, inspire and inform girls to better prepare for their future. As Tech Valley continues to grow, we need to continually address the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Girls’ Summit focuses on STEM studies, careers and fields, and the development of girls into the next generation of leaders and problem solvers.

2018 Theme & Audience

In December 2018, our focus was Reach for the Stars . What can girls do with STEM? Literally anything – she might go on to be a programmer, doctor, anthropologist, designer, president, pastry chef, or anything in between. By learning skills in STEM, every girl can build the foundational problem solving, creativity, and communication skills that will help her succeed and stay competitive in whatever she chooses to do.

This year, the target audience for the summit was two hundred 7th grade girls who attend the Ballston Spa and Niskayuna school districts. The participation of Ballston Spa Middle School was made possible by a grant from The Adirondack Trust Company Foundation. The participation of Niskayuna Middle Schools was made possible by a grant from the Niskayuna Community Foundation.

Our goal is to expose girls in their middle school years to positive and engaging experiences with science, technology, engineering, and math. For girls, this is a critical age and stage of their development and Girls’ Summit is designed to stimulate a curiosity, interest, and connection to the fields of STEM. Girls Inc. is committed to helping girls discover how STEM and its many applications offer exciting opportunities both today and for the future.

Venue

Each year, we collaborate with a local college/university for the location of the summit in order to provide girls a taste of the college experience. For our 11th annual summit, we are thrilled to once again partner with and host the event at Hudson Valley Community College’s TEC-SMART (Training and Education Center for Semiconductor Manufacturing and Alternative and Renewable Technologies), a campus located in Malta. The state-of-the-art TEC-SMART facility will allow for exciting learning opportunities and will inform girls about college and career decisions as they relate to STEM and the Capital Region.

Schedule

The 2018 summit was held on December 20th, 2018 (Snow date: December 21st), 10:30-2:00pm to accommodate the school district and bussing/transportation schedules (subject to shift by 10 minutes or so). The day began with a brief welcome and exciting Keynote speaker, Dr. Valerie Rapson, from miSci . Each girl then had the opportunity to participate in morning group activities and two afternoon workshops . Lunch was provided before the afternoon workshops. The summit concluded with brief closing remarks and a reflection on the day. Educators, administrators, and school counselors from the attending districts were also invited to share in the Girls’ Summit experience. We hope that the topics, tools, and information provided can be easily translated to use in the classroom or other learning environment.